Bills
| 3.23.22

Offering Visas To Immigrant Entrepreneurs (H.R. 5378)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 5378?

(Updated July 13, 2017)

This bill would establish an employment-based, conditional immigrant visa. This new type of visa will be known as a StartUp visa, and will be offered to sponsored immigrant entrepreneurs who:

  • Are financially backed by a qualifying investor or venture capitalist.

  • Will undertake commercial activities that will generate employment, revenue, or capital investment.


The Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) would be directed to terminate the status of a sponsored entrepreneur (and the entrepreneur’s immigrant spouse and children) if after three years of permanent resident status being granted:

  • The sponsoring venture capitalist or investor fails to meet investment requirements.

  • The entrepreneur fails to meet job creation, capital investment, or revenue requirements.

Argument in favor

The American economy will benefit from entrepreneurs immigrating to the U.S. to create jobs and attract investment.

Argument opposed

This is a watered down version of previous attempts at streamlining the immigration process for entrepreneurs. A more comprehensive approach would be preferable to piecemeal legislation.

Impact

Immigrant entrepreneurs and their families, investors and venture capitalists, DHS.

Cost of H.R. 5378

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth:

This bill is the fourth version of the StartUp Act that has been introduced in Congress, and its sponsors hope that this scaled down version will fare better than its predecessors. 


The last version of this legislation — StartUp 3.0 — was more expansive than this version. It created tax credits for startups, exempted start-ups from capital gains taxes, and created a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) visa in addition to the entrepreneur visa. This version was expected to allow as many as 75,000 startup founders to stay in the U.S. to build their business. 


Immigrant entrepreneurs play a crucial role in the U.S. economy. Recent immigrants are 27% more likely to start a business than non-immigrants, and 63% of those entrepreneurs placed in the top third of all U.S. earners. Of the companies that made the 2010 Fortune 500 — over 200 were founded by immigrants.


Media:

Sponsoring Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) Press Release

Wall Street Journal

Los Angeles Times

Renew Our Economy

(Photo Credit: Flickr user charliekjo)